Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Across the blogosphere of college football, there appears to be a quiet but steady move for posters and commenters to “back off” on making fun of ND. Brian at MGoBlog notes it (obliquely) in one of his posts last week, as it references the heat he gets for being too hard on the Irish. There is also a growing trend amongst the mainstream commercial media that “enough is enough” and that it is becoming unseemly to keep piling on. Why?

Certainly can’t be because it is no longer funny. I know I laugh every time I think about it. So do most people I know. Just because ND fans don’t like being laughed at doesn’t dictate that those who enjoy doing it should stop. Is anyone saying/typing that we should all quit laughing at USC for losing to Stanford? I know there isn’t anyone (outside of the Michigan faithful) suggesting people stop laughing at Michigan for losing to App St. That disaster isn’t going to drop off the joke boards any time soon. Why should ND’s disaster of a season get off any easier? Especially when it’s an ongoing disaster that just gets worse every week?

And it certainly can’t be because the Irish fans don’t “deserve" this kind of abuse. First, as Clint Eastwood’s character in “Unforgiven” says, "Deserving’s got nothing to do with it." Second, they do deserve this, or am I the only person who remembers the “Faust” years and their aftermath?

I made the mistake of being “nice” to Domers back in the ‘80’s. Towards the last couple of years of Gerry’s contract, I didn’t rub it in how bad they were, how humiliating it must be to lose like that to Miami, Air Force, etc. I generally spoke positively of the future when they came looking for sympathy.

Then they let Faust go, hired Lou “Prop 48’s do just fine if you give’em a chance” Holtz and it all changed overnight. They proceeded to beat us 4 years in a row, while winning a MNC. And all those friends/acquaintances who I had gone easy on? As obnoxious as if they’d never lost a game in history, let alone ever heard of Faust. Mentioning Faust to Irish fans was about as useful as bringing up Cooper to tosu followers- all just "history" and the only thing that mattered was "right now". So, if ever there were a fan base that is going to unleash itself upon the world the next time they beat us, it is the ND crowd.

So, the question is whether I’m just an embittered M fan who too sharply remembers Demetrious Brown (’87), Reggie Ho (’88), kicking off to the Rocket twice (’89), and blowing the 10 pt lead in the 4th in South Bend (’90)?

Or has laughing at their sorry misery just gotten so pathetic that other people don’t find it funny anymore?

Or do others still feel like me: that these clowns deserve everything they get and every loss is as funny to you as is to me??

If you'd like to see your name in lights (or at least the seedy dark reaches of the Internet), send any guest columns, pix or old Vicki Morgan tapes our way.

Err, um....Pile it on baby. Pile it on. We mustn't forget these are the folks that inflicted the crapfest known as "Rudy" on us. They have also inflicted other crapfests in the guise of movies on us. These are the folks that keep bringing up Knute Rockne and the various other "icons" of college football. These are the folks that act as though college football begins and ends in South Bend. These are the folks that used to seem to get wins in the wierdest possible ways and would somehow attribute it to God.

People didn't seem to have problem piling it on the Lions in the year they almost had a "perfect" season. Nor did they mind piling it on the Tigers when they were making a run for the Mets record.

If there is one thing Americans love, it's kicking a big dog when he's down.....So yes, pile it on. It's our patriotic duty. If we don't keep piling it on, the terrorists will win.

Their fans are kind of hard to get a handle on. Sometimes it seems like they're really classy and polite. And then sometimes they're obnoxious. Same with the team itself. The team and the coach are often classy, especially since they have to uphold all that tradition and whatnot. And then Charlie Weis is a pompous ass (one reason why they suck now), and the players are starting fights (73 against USC and this year--look up on youtube).

there's a great link to ND blog Blue and Gray Sky and the predictions of their staff going into this season.... (you may have to scroll down a bit)

keep in mind that not only did they lose Brady Quinn and Jeff Smardzija, they still had Charlie Weiss as coach so most people around the country were thinking it'd be a down year for the Fighting Amish.

Not these guys! the guys that follow the Amish week in and week out put on their rose colored glasses and gave it their best.

11-1?10-2?9-3?

They averaged out to 9 wins, including every single person picking them over purdue and michigan state, as well as 6 of the 9 picking them over UM and BC.

Queue up the real american genius parody boys because we got some ig'nant bloggers to pay homage to.

Right on. No program has more overhyped tradition than Notre Dame. Some say Michigan is the most overhyped but that's not true.

ND has the NBC contract, the famous coaches, the movies, and so on. Sure they have been so great in the past, but why doesn't Oklahoma, per se, get the same treatment? Or Miami? (On the other hand, Miami is a little hard to glorify, unless in an episode of Miami Vice or a porn movie.) I was not raised a Michigan fan, let alone a college football fan, but growing up I always recognized that there was this notion that Notre Dame was America's team. I rejected that notion mainly because Notre Dame is a Catholic school. Nothing against Catholics, but ND is private and sectarian--not open to everyone like a public school.

Lets put it this way, all the constant fawning and media attention over Notre Dame when they were mediocre... is now constant snickers and pointing at Notre Dame's pure crappiness. They enjoyed the attention before, they don't like the attention now, but they made their own bed. They have to lie in it... and there should be no mercy. After all, Buckeyes continue to remind us that we've lost the last 3 to them and 5 of the last 6. Surely I think we would mostly say the same things (minus the expletives) if we had won the last 5 of 6 against them... sort of like in the 1990's. If Notre Dame is a rival like Ohio State is, there's no reason why we should let up. It is what makes rivalries so enjoyable.

This is much like the heap and scorn that is heaped on the Cokeboys and Yankees when they are having an off year. Look at all the glee this year when it looked like the Yankees weren't going to make the playoffs this year. Noone suggested that it was undeserved. Heck, you didn't hear the Yankees cry about all the attention. Instead, they started to improve and ended up in the playoffs.

Notre Dame loved the attention when they were good so they have to take the attention when they are bad.

Oh, brother. You knew it was just a matter of time before the lamentations began...

Jason, you get bonus points for the best use of Biblical language today. Now all I want to do is search YouTube for Aahnaald saying "lamentation of the women" and play it over and over until I get tired of it.

Notre Dame has an excessive amount of hype when they are good. Sure, the media loves USC and Florida, but they've never been portrayed as having America's richest college football tradition. ND football has been excessively glorified for years. They have a deal with NBC for crying out loud.

BiB,thanks. since first drafting this, Weiss has shot off his mouth w/ the "laugh now" stuff and the sympathy they had been getting sorta vanished.

which, in a way, is the point i was aiming at- that crowd is incapable of being modest or humble, no matter how much they should be.

i hope like hell Navy buries them this week (as a kid, Roger Staubach was in a dead heat w/ Unitas as my favorite player), but if they don't, watch and see if the ND crowd doesn't celebrate like they just won their first bowl game in 13 years.

w/ the acadamies, stanford, and duke coming up, ND could win 3 or 4 more games to end the season. the chants of "we're back" will be as funny as they are foolish.

I hope that Navy kicks their asses all the way back to South Bend or wherever it is they spawned from. I seem to remember last year that they were pretty much running up the score on Navy and Army. The Football Gods are a spiteful lot it seems.

Follow the MZone

Subscribe To

The MZone-slash-MichiganZone.net-slash-MichiganZone.blogspot.com is in no way affiliated with the University of Michigan and/or U-M football in any way. If you thought it was, frankly I'm surprised you know how to use a computer.